Land Tenure in Ancient Ireland. 39 



1542, "the English troops, penetrating to the centre of Ulster, 

 found it a jungle. Tyrone County is described as not containing 

 one single castle, nor yet one town walled, but full of wood, 

 great bogs, and waters, here called loughs." The English, whose 

 appetites were proverbially good, could hardly understand how 

 the Irish got a living in so desolate a land. In 1560, Lord 

 Fitzwilliam, Governor of Dublin, in great fear about rebellion, 

 wrote — " The country is for the most part a wilderness, but the 

 desolation is no security ; the Irish would keep the field when 

 the English would starve. No men of war ever lived the like, 

 or others of God's making, touching feeding and living." In 

 ancient times the good cheer of Tara consisted in devouring 

 great quantities of meat, for neither bread nor drink were 

 mentioned. Nor did bread appear to have been the staff of 

 life to the Irish people of the 16th century. Export of hides 

 was the mark of a pastoral flesh-eating people ; and about the 

 middle of the 16th century " the Irish sent great quantities of 

 raw and tanned hides and sheepskins and some furs to Antwerp, 

 also some coarse linen and woollen cloths." Fish were exchanged 

 with France and Spain for wares by chieftains on the coast. 

 They must suppose that after the Plantation, Ulster rapidly 

 prospered in agriculture, and became largely a grain-producing 

 country ; but the records of the exportation from Belfast in 1663 

 showed by their preponderance of flesh, tallow, and skins that 

 the greater part of the land was untilled. Having further 

 referred to the character of the exports at later periods, with a 

 view of indicating the condition of the land as regards cultivation 

 and the pursuits of the people, Mr. Workman, in conclusion, 

 said the subject affords fresh illustration of the persistent 

 tenacity of the characteristics that distinguish the different races 

 of mankind. We are assured that the negro race is as old 

 as the Egyptian monuments, and we know that the Jews have 

 continued to be the world's greatest merchants for more than 

 2,000 years. So here in Ireland we may regard the eagerness 

 with which our peasantry cling to the soil as a survival of the 

 spirit of the ancient village community, the absolute owner of 

 its own land. Moreover, the pastoral instinct has prevailed over 



